Page 11 - Mark Chews Forty Two Australian Wooden Sailing Boats Sept 17 2020

Anybody who has seen STORM BAY reaching fully canvassed in 20 knots of breeze
will have no issues with her being in my top five Australian wooden sailing boats.
But more importantly, she sits at that precise point where form and function meet,
beauty from efficacy and efficacy from beauty. She is an outstanding example of
how century old sailing culture can be embraced and actively incorporated into
the lives we live today.
STORM BAY was built in 1925 for fisherman George Bridge who lived in Nubeena.
The name comes from Storm Bay where the Derwent River opens to the sea in
South East Tasmania. This was a significant fishing ground with large schools of
barracouta. Percy Coverdale built STORM BAY at his Battery Point boatyard in
Hobart. She has blue gum frames, with hull and decks of Huon pine. Some of the
hull planks are full length from stem to counter.
The Mercury newspaper announced her launching as follows “…STORM BAY is a
very handsome addition to the Tasmanian fishing fleet. Looking at the smack as
she stands at present she resembles a cruising yacht rather than a fishing vessel –
her lines are graceful and she should prove to be speedy under sail.”
She is a jackyard topsail cutter, and is an excellent sailing craft. The moderate draft
hull has more deadrise than other fishing boats of the period, and with its long
keel and centreboard has all the qualities of a fine yacht. Fishing for barracouta
took place while the boat drifted under a double-reefed mainsail. The 'couta jig or
lure was a piece of white Huon pine about 150mm (6 in) long, tapered with two
big barbless hooks, attached to a linked wire chain, fastened to a 4. 5m (15 ft) long
sassafras sapling. With no refrigeration, STORM BAY had a wet well made of 100mm
(4 in) thick Huon pine. The Bridge family owned STORM BAY from 1925 until 1963,
and throughout their ownership she was looked after like a yacht. George died in
1954, but his four sons carried on the business until 1964.
George’s grandson Jim Bridge of Lutana followed in the family business and fished
for 14 years aboard STORM BAY during the 1940s and 50s. After being sold by the
Bridge family she became a crayboat operating out of St. Helens, acquiring a wheel
house for shelter on the open seas off the rugged Tasmanian coast. During a superb
10 year restoration carried out at Tim Phillip’s Wooden Boatshop at Sorrento in
Victoria, she was restored to her original configuration, complete with wet well
and gaff rig.
She now continues her adventures throughout Tasmania, Bass Strait and along
southern Australia’s coast line every year, with a deck full of craypots and often a
well-stocked wet well.
CYAA Magazine Issue 43 September 2020 Page 11